Dyeing in the Blue Mountains

I've been absent for a while as I was busy getting ready and organised to leave home for 3 weeks.

Katoomba sunset, looking down Megalong Valley

I've been staying with my son and his fiancee.in Katoomba while I'm attending workshops at the Blue Mountains Contextart Art Forum, held at the Korowal School in Hazelbrook.  Being able to enjoy these beautiful surroundings and spend time in the extensive gardens was a bonus of the workshops

Over the weekend I did eco-dyeing using plant material from the nearby bush, with Kirsten Ingmar and Trace Willans.  They have very different methods, but both were great tutors and I had good fun, made some lovely new friends..........hello Pat and Christine.......and learnt a lot.  

  Pat and I collaborated on leaf dyeing this cotton tshirt by the bundling method.  Trace showed us how to use egg yolk to enhance the colour and print on cotton, by adding protein to the fabric. This would work on any cellulose fibre....linen, bamboo, rame etc.  We dyed the tshirt in a pot of mountain devil...a local native plant...mordanted with copper.  Note the green on the neckline where the dye has reacted with  perfume on the shirt.

 Back view, love that great string line pattern

 Leaf detail

Close up of string line

I didn't take photos of the bundling and wrapping process, but Trace has a great tutorial on her blog if you'd like to try it.

I did these samples using various shibori style techniques and chemical mordants in a variety of plant based dyes.

 Pole wrapped silk dyed in mountain devil, copper mordant.  It's more a green than the picture shows.

 Shibori folded raw silk, clamped and dyed between wooden blocks in bark with a copper mordant.

Silk georgette bundled with coreopsis flowers, dyed in onion skins with an alum mordant

Highlights of the two days

I'll be back again to post about the basketry workshop I'm doing all this week with Wendy Golden.  

Back again, sewing and knitting

The technical team did a great job searching high and low for the camera lead....how it got into a sewing basket is anyone's guess!

I haven't spent all that time searching, there's been other work of the hands as well. I made a needlefelted fabric postcard for a Stitchinfingers birthday swap, this handsome fellow went to Liz in Kansas who loves fantasy fiction and in particular, dragons. It was a bit of a headache for a while, I just couldn't seem to get him looking right. When I realised his head was too big for his neck, I took to him with the scissors and cut his head down, and re-needled him to a new piece of fabric, and with a fatter neck.  He seems none the worse for the emergency surgery.

These little 'isolette gowns' went off to the Miracle Babies' Foundation, to be worn by tiny premmie babies.

I made this sewing set as a gift for a friend who had bought her first sewing machine, and I thought she'd enjoy having some new tools, and somewhere pretty to keep them. She did!

Inside the basket, with needlebook and pincushion

Pocket in the needlebook to keep ...whatever?

 A baby beanie knitted last night while I watched the first of the new series of Spooks, a British spy show.  It's in Indigenous colours, and will go to Wilcannia, an Aboriginal community out west, when I visit next month. I hope to make a few more before then.

And in the garden, I had a eucalyptus tree trimmed and since it seemed a shame to bin all the clippings, I boiled some up to dye with.  The smell as they cooked was delightful, and the water turned an interesting mustardy yellow.

........as did the fabrics.  I popped in a couple of pieces of wool batting, some linen, and a nice piece of muslin that used to be a sling from when I broke my arm.  Some of the colours are interesting, but I think I a) had too many pieces in the pot for them all to get good coverage and b) I'll overdye some pieces again, maybe adding some rusty nails and a copper tap.

a good start

We've had some odd weather lately...very hot and wet and very hot and dry. What better place to be when you  need a cool dry spot for a nap.........

than in the washing machine of course!

I hope you all find the perfect spot to spend your Sunday.

Edited to add that once again the country is experiencing extremes of weather, and way to the south, as the rain continues to fall and the waters rise, people are waiting nervously in evac centres for word that they can return home, others are returning with trepidation to see what the water has done to their homes, and still others are waiting for that knock on the door from the SES....evacuate now! Some are isolated and inconvenienced by the waters, but are quite safe.  My thoughts are with all of them.